Relationship between Philosophy and Sociology in Durkheim as Continuity and Rapture

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the relationship between Emile Durkheim's sociology and its philosophical contexts. Departing from Durkheim's book Sociology and Philosophy, a collection of Durkheim's essays, the article proposes a lecture on Durkheim's thought underlining the tension and the mutual interaction between normativity and descriptivity. This article also provides a deeper examination on whether the "social philosophy" [philosophie du social] or "sociology" is a matter of concern in Durkheim's thought. Hence, the article focuses mainly on the idea that the rupture between Durkheim's sociology from philosophy is partial. Durkheim, while trying to establish sociology as a discipline apart from philosophy, identifies the fundamental problems of philosophy with a sociological view under the title of "general sociology". Thus, continuity between sociology and philosophy can be mentioned in Durkheim's thought as well as a rupture.